Hokkaido
by thatswhyyyoudont
Summary: Shizuo x Izaya slash. Pre-canon. Shizuo, Izaya and Shinra on a school trip.


It happens in Hokkaido.

It's supposed to be about nature, this trip, but no-one cares – they're just looking forward to the free time, the sea, maybe scoring some booze in the evening, if the locals aren't too strict about ID. It's the last time they'll all see each other before summer, so there's very much an anything-goes attitude.

Their teacher won't admit it, but they're lost. They've been walking for hours and it's getting dark. There's something wrong with Shizuo's flashlight, and he keeps having to lag behind to shake it and bring it back. Shinra has got ahead of him at some point. He doesn't recognise any of the voices nearby. As he's turning and shaking the flashlight in his hands, a smell he instantly knows hits him. The stupid cologne the flea doused himself in.

A familiar laugh comes, and a flashlight glares right in Shizuo's eyes.

Shizuo shoves at it blindly, knocking Izaya back and the flashlight to the ground. Their group gets ahead, and some awkward shoving and dodging in the dark ensues.

Their foreheads knock together as they stumble. Shizuo doesn't know if it's he who initiates it or Izaya, but somehow they are kissing. They grab and hold on to each other for balance, and they don't stop. Shizuo takes to it like a new style of punch. He gets Izaya's back against a tree, and Izaya lets him, so they're in less danger oftripping on a root and splitting their heads open.

Then there's someone shouting Shizuo's name, and a light right in their faces, before Shizuo can shove Izaya away.

" _Shizuo_ ," Shinra says again, and duffs him with a pillow.

The flea is hovering and smirking somewhere in the background, and Shizuo has to duck his eyes. He's getting sick of this diesease he's picked up here, the one that manifests itself in subconscious fantasies of Izaya - Izaya against a tree, Izaya in the shitty hostel showers, Izaya's hand sliding between his thighs at the breakfast table.

Shinra smacks him again with the pillow. "Get up already, we're gonna be late."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm awake," he mumbles. He sits up and draws his knees in to hide his problem.

Izaya says nothing, but Shizuo can _feel_ him smirking. The flea knows everything. He always does.

Shizuo avoids his eyes. "You guys go ahead, save me a seat. I'll catch up."

Izaya looks like he's trying not to laugh, and has to turn away.

Shizuo knows his face is burning, but there's nothing he can do about it.

Shinra is oblivious. "OK, but don't go back to sleep! We can go as soon as we eat. This is our last chance to go to the woods here!"

As soon as they're gone, Shizuo locks himself in the bathroom and leans against the door, a wad of toilet paper in his spare fist. He half expects Izaya to come back, claiming to need the toilet, or to have forgotten something, but he doesn't, and Shizuo can finish in peace. His head jerks against the door as he comes, and he stays there waiting to come down.

* * *

Izaya had been put in a three with them when his own partner got sick. The teacher presumeably did this due to Izaya's friendship with Shinra. So close to the end of the trip, the teacher's patience is wearing thin, and he did not take kindly to Shizuo's protests. Shizuo is on his last warning on this trip for losing his temper, and so is in no position to argue further. He has no doubt that the teacher will send him home if he proves to be too difficult.

Izaya likes Shinra, and seems to find the whole thing rather funny. On that basis alone, Shizuo refuses to let himself be sent home, even if he isn't exactly loving the trip. It's sticky-hot all the time and boring.

Shinra is delighted. He begs them to have some kind of truce just for the last day.

"Just don't talk to me or do anything and we won't have a problem," Shizuo tells Izaya.

Shinra just sighs.

Shinra the compromiser, Shinra the peace-maker. He takes the bottom of one of the bunks, so Izaya and Shizuo can both have a top bunk, and he buys both bitter and milk chocolate when he goes to the hostel's tuck shop.

Shizuo listens to Izaya have a normal conversation with Shinra about nothing in particular, and even that pisses him off. Izaya can be charming and funny and even _nice_ when he feels like it, but chooses to be a complete dick. It does nothing for Shizuo's mood.

He hates this weather. It's like being mad on the outside. It's oppressive, it's burning, it's not letting him think straight. Shizuo's light skin burns easily and his clothes stick to him. It makes his temper much worse; something as meagre as being unable to find his toothbrush can be enough to set him off.

Izaya doesn't seem to love it either, but his already olive skin turns a beautiful nut brown, and his hair lightens naturally in the sun. Shizuo hates him.

Their first morning as a three, Izayatakes his tea outside and sits sipping it against the wall, mostly in shade but with his face turned up to the sun, cat-like. Speaking of which, the hostel cat is curled up at his side. That pissed Shizuo off as well. Weren't animals supposed to sense bad people?

"Who drinks tea in this heat?" Shizuo grumbles to Shinra over his juice.

"Hey, Shizuo, he's being nice," Shinra reprimands. "Let's join him."

He drags Shizuo outside to sit on the grass with Izaya.

"I want to see these." He flips over his dog-eared guide and shows them a flock of crane-like birds. "They're the native birds here, and there's some prize if you manage to get a photo of one. I don't care about a prize, but it's just the sort of thing Celty would love."

Both Shizuo and Izaya groan in unison. It's a little disconcerting for Shizuo, sharing thoughts with his enemy, but even the cat is surely sick of hearing Celty's name.

He finishes his juice without much enthusiasm. He doesn't care about some stupid birds.

* * *

They're waiting for Shinra to catch up when they see them. Shinra's trying to get a shot of some rare plant, or something, when Izaya grabs Shizuo's arm.

Shizuo sees his face before he can react, and follows his gaze. A pair of the birds, black and red, elegant on their long legs wander around them, near the tree they'd been leaning against. Shizuo has to admit, they are beautiful. They're close enough for him to touch their tail feathers if he leaned forward enough.

Izaya is still gripping his arm. Shizuo is reminded momentarily, agonisingly, of his dream, and can't look at him. He forces himself to focus on the birds.

"Got a camera?" he murmurs to Izaya.

"No," he says, without moving. "But I don't really want a picture."

They watch, frozen, until Shinra comes crashing back, and they disappear up into the trees.

"Wow, I just know Celty is going to love these shots," Shinra beams, oblivious.

Izaya and Shizuo exchange a glance, and wordlessly agree not to say anything. Without a photo, it's like it never even happened.

* * *

"We could sneak out and drink."

They both blink at Shizuo. But, it is too hot, there is nothing to do in this town, and Shizuo wants to do something behind the teacher's back to get revenge for this forced threesome.

Shinra bites his lip. "I don't know, Shizuo..."

"Come on, this trip's been terrible. And it's the last night, it's nearly summer – what can they do to us?"

"I've got a fake ID," Izaya says suddenly. "I'll go get something if you guys can get ice. I'll take my rucksack to sneak them in."

Shinra tries to protest, but he's outnumbered.

They pool their money together, and Izaya disappears with it and his bag. Shizuo hopes he doesn't just run off with the money, but Shinra insists that is ridiculous.

Sure enough, he returns with their change and the receipt, and enough to get them pretty far gone.

Shinra does not handle drink well. It's pretty funny. He turns even redder than Shizuo's sunburn, and he can't talk properly. Izaya isn't too graceful himself, but he's not as bad as Shinra, who falls asleep on his bunk mid lament about Celty.

"Shinra," Izaya complains. He's on his back on the floor with his legs on Shinra's bed, batlike, and jostles Shinra with one of them. "Come on. We'll have to talk to each other without you."

Shinra doesn't move.

Izaya sighs. A little silence falls.

"How do we get rid of these?" Shizuo fingers the empty bottles.

Izaya regards them upside down. "Just put them in a backpack, we'll ditch them tomorrow when no-one's looking."

Shizuo nods. "You're all right," he blurts. He can't help it, he's a talker when he's had a drink. "When you're not being a dick."

"How would you know?" Izaya retorts. "You haven't talked to me."

"I've seen you with Shinra," he says honestly. "You should be, y'know, normal, more often."

Izaya snorts in response. He gets one of Sinra's pillows off the bed and hurls it at Shizuo. A lazy comeback, for him. Then he does a neat, reverse somersault away from the bed and sits up.

"I need some air," he says, stretching. He gestures to the bottles. "I might as well take these now."

"Don't get caught," Shizuo tells him.

"Come, if you want. Keep an eye out." He sways slightly as he stands. Shizuo thinks he better had, or the flea is bound to get caught and get them all in trouble.

They take the rucksack of bottles to the trashcan on the beach, down the street and out of sight of the hostel. They're pretty tipsy, and Izaya is pretty loud, so it's almost funny how easily they get away with it.

Izaya dumps the bag on the sand and kicks off his sandals.

"What are you doing?"

Izaya turns to him and walks backwards to the sea, grinning. "Swimming!" He throws his arms out for emphasis.

"I don't think you should swim when you're drunk."

"Chicken!"

Izaya spins as the water laps over his ankles, takes his shirt off and throws it behind him.

Shizuo swallows as Izaya goes crashing into the waves. Two very different instincts are telling him to go back inside and leave Izaya to drown, or to go right in after him.

He hisses with pleasure-pain as the water hits his sunburn.

Izaya splashes him playfully and floats on his back. "Swimming is better drunk."

He turns his head and looks at Shizuo through his wet hair.

"Want to race?"

They're mostly neck and neck, but Shizuo feels Izaya could win if he wasn't laughing so much. He cheats when Izaya eventually pulls ahead, grabbing him by the ankle to pull him back. His laughter's cut short as he struggles to stay up. He eventually kicks free, and has to hang on to Shizuo's shoulder to stop coughing. He smells better with the cologne all washed away. He's so close, it's just like one of Shizuo's stupid dreams. But then he recovers and lets go, and the moment's gone

"You brute," Izaya splashes him, laughing again, and swims away, the race forgotten.

"Izaya?" Shizuo blurts after him.

"What?" He turns onto his back.

Shizuo can't think of a thing to say.

Izaya straightens. "Did you say something? I had my ears under water."

"No."

He shakes his head and aims for the shore. Izaya follows him.

When they can touch the sand, when Shizuo starts to wade in, Izaya pulls him back by the arm and kisses him. He tastes of alcohol and salt. They're still pretty deep, and the waves splash over them and into their mouths, but they don't stop.

Izaya breaks away to laugh.

"I've tried making out whilst swimming before, and believe me, it doesn't work. You have to- "

Shizuo kisses him again to shut him up. He steps back and drags Izaya with him, to where his feet can touch the ground and Izaya's can't. The flea's arms go round Shizuo's neck, his legs around his waist, as the water helps support his weight.

They stay until their skin wrinkles and their eyes burn from the salt, until it starts to get dark. They ignored a beautiful sunset behind them.

"We should probably go back," Izaya murmurs.

They stagger into the lobby dripping wet, soaking the book when they sign back in. They get an odd look from the receptionist, but he doesn't comment.

When they accidentally slam their bedroom door, Shinra shoots up in bed, groggy-eyed. He pats around for his glasses.

"Wha…?"

"We took care of the bottles," Izaya tells him, swaying only slightly, while Shizuo locks the door.

"Great," Shinra mumbles. He gives up on the glasses and goes back to sleep.

Izaya goes to stand in the bathroom door.

"Want to shower?"

Shizuo can't tell if he's serious or not. His eyes fall to Shinra.

"He won't wake up." Izaya drops his shirt and sandals on the floor and doesn't wait for Shizuo to respond. He leaves the door open and turns on the water.

* * *

Shizuo wakes up with a sore neck. When he opens his eyes, he reckons it's probably because he's slept on the floor.

Izaya had been too out of it to climb to his bunk, so he'd retrieved the pillow he'd chucked at Shizuo and curled around it. Shizuo had gone to sleep a safe distance away, not wanting to be found cuddled up to him in the morning. His head hurts, but it's nowhere near as bad as he expected. He wonders if he is still drunk.

He wakes Izaya and Shinra an hour before they have to leave. They both groan and don't move.

"You guys are such lightweights," Shizuo comments, though he's not feeling great himself. He hopes the coach driver isn't a maniac this time.

"What _happened_?" Shinra moans, like he's been in an accident.

"You passed out, and I had to babysit Izaya while he went for a swim."

"Uh?" Izaya lifts his head, frowning. His eyes are very red. "Seriously?"

Shizuo stares at him for a minute. It's impossible to tell if he's faking or not.

Then he rubs his eyes. "Auyeah, I remember. Vaguely. Surprised you didn't let me drown." He stumbles out of the room into the bathroom.

They make it to the coach without puking, and without anyone suspecting. They sit in the back, Shinra between them, and Shizuo is just nodding off when Shinra elbows him, hard. "Look, _look_!"

He looks. The cranes, or whatever they are, are in flight over the threes, a pair, although they can't be the same ones he and Izaya saw.

"Great," Shizuo mutters.

"Cute," Izaya mutters. He'd leaned over Shinra to see what the fuss was about, and settles back down now. Shizuo watches them until they're out of sight.

Izaya doesn't speak to him for the entire trip home. Shizuo doesn't see him all summer, and he is the same as ever their next semester.

Even now, Shizuo has no idea if it really happened or not.


End file.
